Comparison between SeHCAT test and clinical response to cholestyramine in patients with chronic diarrhea and high suspicion of bile acid malabsorption: A single-center prospective study.

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the clinical response to cholestyramine in patients with functional chronic diarrhea and a high clinical suspicion of bile-acid diarrhea (BAD) investigated with 75-selenium homocholic acid taurine (SeHCAT) test.

Methods: Adult patients attending our outpatient clinic between January and December 2021 for chronic diarrhea with suspicion of BAD were proposed SeHCAT testing and a therapeutic trial of cholestyramine 4-8 g daily. Clinical response to cholestyramine was evaluated at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months.

A tri-modal tissue-equivalent anthropomorphic phantom for PET, CT and multi-parametric MRI radiomics.

Purpose: Radiomics has emerged as an advanced image processing methodology to define quantitative imaging biomarkers for prognosis and prediction of treatment response and outcome. The development of quantitative imaging biomarkers requires careful analysis to define their accuracy, stability and reproducibility through phantom measurements. Few efforts were devoted to develop realistic anthropomorphic phantoms.

Parameters Influencing PET Imaging Features: A Phantom Study with Irregular and Heterogeneous Synthetic Lesions.

Aim: To evaluate reproducibility and stability of radiomic features as effects of the use of different volume segmentation methods and reconstruction settings. The potential of radiomics in really capturing the presence of heterogeneous tumor uptake and irregular shape was also investigated.

Materials And Methods: An anthropomorphic phantom miming real clinical situations including synthetic lesions with irregular shape and nonuniform radiotracer uptake was used.

A Method for Manufacturing Oncological Phantoms for the Quantification of 18F-FDG PET and DW-MRI Studies.

The aim of this work was to develop a method to manufacture oncological phantoms for quantitation purposes in 18F-FDG PET and DW-MRI studies. Radioactive and diffusion materials were prepared using a mixture of agarose and sucrose radioactive gels. T2 relaxation and diffusion properties of gels at different sucrose concentrations were evaluated.

Eribulin across multiple lines of chemotherapy: a retrospective study on quality of life and efficacy in metastatic breast cancer patients.

This study evaluates efficacy, tolerability and health-related quality of life of eribulin in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Predictive and/or prognostic factors of outcome were also analyzed. Among 44 women receiving eribulin mesylate, one patient had a complete response, 22.

Restaging clear cell renal carcinoma with 18F-FDG PET/CT.

Aim: The aim of our retrospective study was to assess the usefulness of F-FDG PET/CT in the restaging of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients.

Patients And Methods: Sixty-nine patients (median age = 62 years; range = 36-86 years) affected by clear cell RCC (TNM at staging: T1, 42 patients; T2, 13 patients; T3, 11 patients; T4, 3 patients; Fuhrman grade: G2, 47 patients; G3, 20 patients; G4, 2 patients) underwent whole-body F-FDG PET/CT to restage the disease after nephrectomy for clinical or radiological suspicion of metastases. Areas of abnormal uptake at PET/CT were classified, taking the liver uptake as reference, as follows: 1 = faint uptake, lower than liver; 2 = moderate uptake, equal to liver; and 3 = high uptake, higher than liver.

Attenuation correction for small animal PET images: a comparison of two methods.

In order to extract quantitative parameters from PET images, several physical effects such as photon attenuation, scatter, and partial volume must be taken into account. The main objectives of this work were the evaluation of photon attenuation in small animals and the implementation of two attenuation correction methods based on X-rays CT and segmentation of emission images. The accuracy of the first method with respect to the beam hardening effect was investigated by using Monte Carlo simulations.

Considerations on an automatic computed tomography tube current modulation system.

The scope of this study was to evaluate the effects on radiation output and image noise varying the acquisition parameters with an automatic tube current modulation (ATCM) system in computed tomography (CT). Chest CT examinations of an anthropomorphic phantom were acquired using a GE LightSpeed VCT 64-slice tomograph. Acquisitions were performed using different pitch, slice thickness and noise index (NI) values and varying the orientation of the scanned projection radiograph (SPR).

Feasibility of carbidopa premedication in pediatric patients: a pilot study.

Aim: To verify the potential role and feasibility of carbidopa premedication in pediatric patients undergoing ¹⁸F-DOPA (Fluorine-18 fluorodihydroxyphenylalanine) PET scanning.

Materials And Methods: For this limited study, 5 patients (M:F=3:2; mean age 4.8 years) with a positive history for neuroblastoma who had been referred to our institution for instrumental monitoring during clinical follow-up were enrolled.

Molecular imaging of neuroblastoma progression in TH-MYCN transgenic mice.

Purpose: TH-MYCN transgenic mice represent a valuable preclinical model of neuroblastoma. Current methods to study tumor progression in these mice are inaccurate or invasive, limiting the potential of this murine model. The aim of our study was to assess the potential of small animal positron emission tomography (SA-PET) to study neuroblastoma progression in TH-MYCN mice.

Potential role of combined FDG PET/CT & contrast enhancement MRI in a rectal carcinoma model with nodal metastases characterized by a poor FDG-avidity.

Purpose: To investigate the additional role of MRI contrast enhancement (CE) in the primary tumor and the FDG uptake at PET in the lymph-node metastases.

Materials And Methods: A model of colorectal cancer induced by orthotopic HT-29 cells microinjection, producing pelvic lymph node metastases, was assessed using CE-MRI and FDG-PET. Histology and GLUT-1 immunohistochemistry were performed on primary tumors and iliac lymph nodes.

In vivo ¹⁸F-FDG tumour uptake measurements in small animals using Cerenkov radiation.

Purpose: 2-[(18)F]Fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose ((18)F-FDG) is a widely used PET radiotracer for the in vivo diagnosis of several diseases such as tumours. The positrons emitted by (18)F-FDG, travelling into tissues faster than the speed of light in the same medium, are responsible for Cerenkov radiation (CR) emission which is prevalently in the visible range. The purpose of this study is to show that CR escaping from tumour tissues of small living animals injected with (18)F-FDG can be detected with optical imaging (OI) techniques using a commercial optical instrument equipped with charge-coupled detectors (CCD).

Cerenkov radiation allows in vivo optical imaging of positron emitting radiotracers.

In this paper, we showed that Cerenkov radiation (CR) escaping from the surface of small living animals injected with (18)F-FDG can be detected with optical imaging techniques. (18)F decays by emitting positrons with a maximum energy of 0.635 MeV; such positrons, when travelling into tissues faster than the speed of light in the same medium, are responsible of CR emission.

Combined optical and single photon emission imaging: preliminary results.

In vivo optical imaging instruments are generally devoted to the acquisition of light coming from fluorescence or bioluminescence processes. Recently, an instrument was conceived with radioisotopic detection capabilities (Kodak in Vivo Multispectral System F) based on the conversion of x-rays from the phosphorus screen. The goal of this work is to demonstrate that an optical imager (IVIS 200, Xenogen Corp.

Small animal PET for the evaluation of an animal model of genital infection.

Background: [(18)F]-FDG is a widely used tracer for the non-invasive evaluation of hypermetabolic processes like cancer and inflammation. However, [(18)F]-FDG is considered inaccurate for the diagnosis of urinary tract and genital infections because of its urinary excretion. Since the 1970s, Gallium scintigraphy is a well established test that has been used for the evaluation of inflammation and infection in human patients.

Cancer-associated stroma affects FDG uptake in experimental carcinomas. Implications for FDG-PET delineation of radiotherapy target.

Purpose: To analyse the influence of cancer-associated stroma on FDG-uptake in two carcinoma models characterized by different stromal degrees.

Methods: Eight nude mice were subcutaneously injected with DU-145 prostate cancer cells or BXPC-3 pancreatic cancer cells, and underwent FDG-PET imaging about 2 weeks after implantation. After the mice were killed, histology, and CD31 and GLUT1 immunohistochemistry were performed.